Jon Jones wants James Toney

UFC phenom Jon Jones wants top-three opponent next but will settle for James Toney

http://mmajunkie.com/news/20129/ufc-phenom-jon-jones-wants-top-three-opp...

SAN DIEGO – While Vladimir Matyushenko, Brandon Vera and even Matt Hamill might disagree, Jon Jones (11-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) has a shocking message for everyone in the UFC's light heavyweight division: "Bones" is just playing a game.

Sure, that game generally involves the reconstruction of at least some part of his opponents' faces, but to Jones, it's all about fun.

Oh, and guess what heavyweights – you're not off the hook either.

"You saw me go in there before the fight making jokes and trying to have fun," Jones said following his win over Matyushenko at Sunday night's UFC on Versus 2 event. "That's me psyching myself out to try and relax and try and have fun. This is the game I signed up to play. Just staying relaxed in the octagon and remembering to have fun, that's the key, I feel."

Jones' TKO win over the more experienced Matyushenko was his third first-round stoppage in a row. Sure, the Hamill fight resulted in a disqualification and shows up as a loss on Jones' record, but anyone who's seen the ending sequence to that contest likely considers it just another win for the 23-year-old phenom.

And while Jones is already being anointed "the next big thing" by both fans and media alike, the dangerous light heavyweight is doing his best to stave off the pressure in favor of enjoying his time in the cage.

"To be honest, [the expectations] really do bother me," Jones admitted. "It makes me really nervous sometimes. I was starting to beat up myself and say, 'OK, not only do I need to win this fight, but I have to impress people and look spectacular. Like (WEC champ) Jose Aldo, he came out and every fight was so sweet. Man, he doesn't have a bad fight. I was starting to give myself that same type of pressure.

"I talked to my mentors and my coaches, and they're like, 'Hey, Jon – listen. You do this for yourself. You lose a fight, all this media and all this hype train is going to be done, so don't even worry about the train. There is no train. You do this for your family, and you do this for yourself. Mainly, you do this to have fun.'"

It's a lesson Jones said was learned in his upbringing.

"My mom used to say, 'God don't like ugly, Jon,'" Jones told MMAjunkie.com "Being cocky sucks. I'm just really aware that there's a lot of better fighters out there still. There's some guys with great jiu-jitsu, great wrestling, great striking. I haven't really proven myself against a top-five contender, so I really no have real way to think I'm the man.

"I've got a lot of work to do, and there's a quote that says, 'A real black belt is a black belt because he's aware of how much he doesn't know.' I'm just aware that I'm still a kid in this sport, and I have a lot more maturing to do as a man and as an athlete. I'm just going to stay on the ground."

And should he forget that concept, Jones said there are plenty of folks around to remind him.

"Another big thing is all my teammates are in their 30s and late 20s, so they check me when they see anything going on," Jones said. "If I miss a practice or something, there's somewhere there always going, 'Where were you this morning?' I have a lot of people that steer me in the right direction."

And of course, that direction is essentially straight up – as in to the top of the light heavyweight ranks.

While UFC president Dana White recently said a win at Sunday night's event would vault Jones into a position to challenge the "top eight" or so fighters in the UFC's 205-pound division, the top prospect has his eyes set a little further up the ladder.

"Every opponent I've had are really tough guys," Jones said. "Right now, I'm passing these tests with flying colors. I really don't want to sound arrogant, so I've got to be careful the way I word this, but I want to fight someone who's really going to give me a really tough test. That has to be the champion or whoever. I want to fight someone who's supposedly much better than me ... so I can really step up and evolve to a different level.

"There's the champion (Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua), and he's the toughest guy right now. He's very well-rounded. He's a great striker. Just like the top three contenders. I really want to push myself against the No. 1, 2 and 3 guys now. I really feel like that needs to happen. The top three guys are the guys I'd like to fight – except for (teammate) Rashad (Evans), obviously."

Of course, in addition to the sport's best 205-pounders, Jones has dropped a few hints that he may be eyeing a few matchups in the heavyweight division. With his 6-foot-4 frame, imagining Jones taking on the big boys isn't a difficult task.

And if Jones' towering figure appeared to dwarf Matyushenko in the cage on Sunday night, there's a reason.

"I got up to about 231 (pounds) this time around, and today I performed around 226 (pounds), so this is the heaviest I've ever performed at, and I felt as if I was just as fast," Jones said.

So the sky now truly seems to be the limit, and Jones is beginning to – in typically humble fashion, of course – imagine himself as a two-division athlete. And after finding himself on the receiving end of some perhaps ill-placed trash talk in recent days, the admittedly sensitive Jones already has a target in mind for his first trip above the 205-pound limit.

"Randy Couture, he bumps up to heavyweight all the time, and he always looks very impressive against the slower guy," Jones said. "And now I actually have a heavyweight that I wouldn't mind fighting. That's James Toney – 'Mr. I'm going to slap Jon in the face.' I'd bump up for that fight any day."